Tom Karlya

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Kids Who ‘DO’ Because They Care for YOUR Child with Diabetes

I have stated often that “I have to do this”. For my kids, I would do anything and I do not merely get up in the morning, I pretty much jump out of bed because I know something GREAT will happen in this cause that has, in essence, chosen me. It is pretty much the largest percentage of my day. I have chosen the Diabetes Research Institute for the majority of my energy, both professionally and on my own to support, and you may have chosen something or somewhere else……and that’s just fine.

But we do what we do because there is passion in our hearts and a flame in our souls…..right? But do you not just love observing the world around us and all those WHO CHOOSE to support the same cause as we do. Do you not just marvel at the passion so many others show who do it because they believe as we do without the same connection we have to this diabetes world.

There are so many that ‘do’ and last night was a huge example of such an effort. I was honored to attend, and be asked to address, the capacity-packed stands at West Broward High School for their annual DiaBEAT THIS! event sponsored by their student organization S.O.A.P. (Student Organization of Anatomy and Physiology). I wondered, after last year, if the ‘wow-factor’ could possibly be repeated again this year. How they ever out-do themselves each year is just beyond me……but they did—–and big time.

It’s not just the education about type one and type two which is everywhere you look throughout the building; it’s not just the fun-loving completion of the basketball games; it is not even the ‘magic’ of each performance from toddler to razor-sharp dancing, cheerleading, and music of the student body; no it’s more than all of this……it’s a unified spirit that, quite frankly, is rare at this magnitude. This spirit creates an energy unlike anything I have witnessed before.

There is just no question that West Broward High School is incredibly adept at tapping into each student’s strength. They live by the notion that the greater whole is only the sum of the parts……and ohhhhhh those parts……talk about a chain with no weak link in the entire length.

The energy is not just in the building; it grabs you, bear hugs you and charges you up from your toes to the top of your head; because the energy is in each person. Students and faculty do not just say hi to you, they high-five you, fist bump you, and give hugs as readily as any group you will ever meet. With the exception of the obvious age gap, the barrier of student/teacher is blurred of a hierarchy that can just be explained as a ‘we are’ attitude. This is our school, all-of-our-school, and ‘we are’ West Broward High School.

From students who stop and pick up a piece of paper on the floor, to a faculty that sweeps if needed, to a student organization that decides it’s better to give back, but like everything they do at this wonderful school they only know how do things one way—–and when they give back they give back one hundred and fifty percent.

My eyes were wide open last night observing an incredible spirit; my ears were open last night enjoying beautiful sounds; my spirit was renewed last night by a group of kids and faculty who ‘just get it’; and above all my heart was touched last night, as a father of two kids who live with diabetes every day and really want a cure, by a community who said loudly they care and together we can all…….DiaBEAT THIS!